On the rink, it’s all about risk and reward. You don’t fling the puck up the middle from the defensive zone with scant hope of connecting on a home run breakaway pass when the short feed or chip off the wall is available for a crisp breakout. Isn’t that correct, Michael Del Zotto?

Everyone on the ice gets it. If a player doesn’t, if he repeatedly errs, he is out of the league. It is impossible to win on a consistent basis or on a grand scale without respect for the risk and reward equation that serves as the fundamental principle in every winning NHL locker room.

Yet, they are unable to compute this elementary fact of life in the boardroom on Sixth Avenue that serves as headquarters for Canceler-in-Chief Gary Bettman and his scrambled vision of hockey, in which he is willing to throw the figurative puck up the middle over and over again with only the faintest hope of connecting.

Bettman is willing to take the monumental risk of canceling yet another season as opposed to the meager rewards of limiting players to seven-year contracts and refusing transition rules that might cost NHL owners comparative pennies weighed against the cost of the second canceled season in the last eight years of his regime.

This is a man, quite frankly, who would first be shown the bench by Rangers coach John Tortorella, then scratched, then placed on waivers by Blueshirts general manager Glen Sather for the purpose of a buyout.

For Bettman is not an individual with whom a team can achieve success. He is not an individual who can be relied upon to see the entire rink, to process the big picture, to recognize that the business of hockey is not personal.

There are 25 contracts in the NHL that are longer than the seven-year maximum for players remaining with their own teams, in addition to the five-year contract term limit for free agents changing clubs that Bettman, counsel Bob Batterman and the Board wish to impose on the league as opposed to the NHL Players’ Association’s proposal of eight-year limits across the board.

Of those 25 contracts, 19 are heavily front-loaded. It stands to reason that eliminating dramatic front-loads will eliminate the double-digit contracts owners claim act as drags on franchise value.

I would defy any owner to explain why the season should be canceled over the difference of one or three years in maximum contract lengths in the current proposals of the NHL and the NHLPA.

The league’s proposed contract term limits are meant to devalue free agency. The league acts as if players spent the seven seasons under the expired collective bargaining agreement fleeing small markets for big markets even as all available evidence contradicts the theory.

There is also the NHL’s take-it-or-leave-it refusal to accept transition rules regarding amnesty buyouts and the 2013-14 cap that would present clubs mechanisms with which to comply to the new CBA. Rather, the league seems intent on punishing teams that obeyed every rule in the book while spending money in attempting to build champions.

Even if buyouts might add a small amount of money beyond the league’s magical yet utterly meaningless 50/50 split, — under 50/50, a $60M cap and a $44M floor, the Rangers would not be permitted to spend more than approximately 30 percent of their revenue on payroll while the Islanders would be forced to spend a minimum of 54 percent on players, according to 2011-12 Forbes’ revenue numbers that are adjusted for revenue sharing — the amount would be miniscule as compared to the lasting damage incurred by canceling this season.

Negotiations are expected to resume either Wednesday or Thursday, leaving the parties a window of up to three weeks to reach an accord. When they do, the NHLPA has a chip to play beyond disclaiming, and that is to yield on the length of the CBA.

There can’t be more than a handful of players who would reject the CBA if it’s 10 years with an eight-year out clause. Once the NHLPA agrees to that league stipulation, there is no reason why the NHL wouldn’t give back on contract length and transition matters while splitting the middle on other outstanding issues.

No reason, that is, unless Bettman cannot or will not see.

In 2001-02, the Rangers had a defenseman named Igor Ulanov, who threw one meatball after another up the middle that invariably became egregious giveaways. Ulanov was sent on his way after five months on Broadway.

For his inability to gauge risk/reward and process the bigger picture, for his willingness to risk the future for imaginary reward, Gary Bettman is the Igor Ulanov of pro sports commissioners.

* A personal note, if you please. During the lockout, life goes on. For our family, that means new life. We welcome with love Reese Elizabeth Brooks, the second child of Jordan and Joanna, the little sister of Scott, and who we cherish, of course, as Our Miss Brooksie.